The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has detected a series of infrastructure deficiencies stating the human resources, available in hospitals across the state, were not in consonance with the Indian Public Health Standard (IPHS) norms.
Its report on “Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services in the State”, which was presented in the Odisha assembly on Saturday, projected a grim picture of government-run healthcare facilities, lacking adequate number of doctors, paramedics, and medical equipment. The overall vacancy of specialist doctors in the state was 49 per cent as compared to the sanctioned strength, whereas it was 40 per cent for Medical Officers. In case of Staff Nurses/ Nursing Officers, 30 per cent posts were vacant, CAG pointed out.
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Five out of the 14 test-checked Community Health Centres (CHCs) lacked all the prescribed specialised Out Patient Department (OPD) services. Basic amenities like seating arrangements and toilet facilities for OPD patients were found inadequate in the test-checked hospitals. In two test-checked Medical College and Hospitals (MCHs), only 325 beds (42 per cent) had the facility for central oxygen supply, against the requirement of 775 IPD beds, it stated.
Most of the test-checked DHHs failed to provide Psychiatry, Skin and Venereal Disease (VD), Dental and Trauma Care services, it found. Accident and Trauma Care Centres (TCCs) for strengthening and boosting the emergency services were not available in four of the seven test-checked District Headquarter Hospitals (DHHs). The TCCs in the other three DHHs, lacked infrastructure and manpower. Dedicated TCC for Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital, Baripada had not been created and the equipment worth Rs 3.04 crore was lying idle, the premiere audit agency detected.
None of the seven test-checked DHHs had dedicated emergency services, equipped with mobile X-ray/ laboratory services, OT facilities, emergency beds and separate manpower. Emergency equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators supplied to the health facilities were found idle, due to non-provisioning of ancillary infrastructure and equipment. Nine of the 14 test-checks also lacked blood storage units to meet the emergency requirement, as CHCs had no blood storage units.
As per the NITI Aayog’s report (Health Index, June 2019), the State of Odisha ranked 19 among 21 larger States, in the Health Index, with only Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, behind. Its position, in regard to the Health Index in the reference year (2017-18), in fact, deteriorated from the base year (2015-16), by 3.46 points. As such, there is a vast scope for improvement in the healthcare services at all levels, the audit report further pointed out.
